"It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong." Proverbs 24:3.

William Coleman has been married for more than thirty years and is the father of three children. In his book, IF I COULD RAISE MY KIDS AGAIN, Coleman shares his insights and lessons he's learned over the years. I find that I learn best from other parents who openly share their experiences. Coleman's vulnerability and frankness combined with Biblical teaching and his collection of personal stories, made his book an enjoyable read and an effective teacher.

The 22 short chapters cover a variety of parenting related topics. The chapters are: The Grand Tour; Stand on the Chairs and Shout; Aim for Respect Before Love; Let Them Pull the Cat's Tail; Spend More Time Together; Find a Church Life; Learning From Our Children; Give Them More Choices; I'd Smile More; The Relative Connection; Soothe the Savage; Pitch a Tent; Build Self-Confidence; Ride the Screaming Plunger; Set Unusual Goals; The Battle for the Supper Hour; Get Control of the Television; Share and Pray; The Almighty Dollar; Let Them Argue More; We'd Play More Games; and Graduation Time.

When my wife and I were expecting our first child, I knew that I had no idea what I was doing. I went out and bought a few books on parenting with the desire to begin building a strong parenting foundation that I could build on over the years. IF I COULD RAISE MY KIDS AGAIN is one book that I will regularly go back to.

This book says it all for those who are in the process of "coming out". Stop asking for more opinions from your closest gay friends (friends who are either already out or yet to come out) or your understanding girlfriends. Just read this book.

The books tells you all that you need to know and need to do to "come out". I wouldn't have given it a five-star rating if I was not totally impressed. The writing style is wonderful and the approaches are just unbelievably easy and comforting.

Often it is hard to even think about telling your mom and dad because of this feeling of fear that either "they'll die or they'll kill me"...I am not spoiling the fun for you so I am not going to tell you the content of this book. The title of this book should give you a clear idea of what the content is.

However, what I can tell you is that this book will definitely tell you how to give yourself permission to act on the feelings you have been hiding and keeping safely inside (about coming out and not think that your mom and dad will die or they will kill you).

You will be able to find a natural and spontaneous expression of your deepest, most intimate feelings after reading this book.

This book cracks you open from pressure of coming out. So, what are you waiting for, go get it now.

There can not be enough said about bullying, it can devistate lives, and change a person for a lifetime. This book is a wonderful guide to be used in schools and places of enployment to control some of the spiteful actions of both children and adults. This book is a guide to better understanding of how to cope with anger, pain, and social attitudes. Then it helps in the healing. I believe this book will help many children as well as adults deal with the insight of how Bullying changes lives.

William Coleman eloquently describes the enormous heartache of parents of prodigal children. He does not sugar-coat the painful reality nor try to give empty hope. Seeking to help hurting parents understand their own pain, Coleman includes stories of parents who have struggled with their young adults' poor choices in life. He encourages them to accept their reality and move on with their own lives while trusting their child to God.

Bar none, this is the best book of its kind regarding usage of the English language. Examples are used throughout this book to aid in understanding and use of the English language. While out of print, if you can get your hands on a copy, do so.

I have 3 children and I've read all the "how to" books I could in many subjects thoughout my 18 years as a parent. I found this small book in the library and I'm sad to see it's not printed new. They should bring this book out to publish again! It's old fashioned , right to point and a simple read. Many parenting troubles can be solved by having our children "pitch in"! I'm not even sure Mr. Spellman knows how this book is really much more than a book on teaching chores. It teaches love, sharing, helping and so much more. Not only did I get my children to help more but they have become so confident, and a pleasure to be around!We have fun as a family...thankyou Charles Spellman!

Jane Duer illustrates Patricia MacLachlan's The Sick Day, a simple story of a young girl who has a sick day - her stomach aches and her throat feels sore. Good reading skills will lend to this easy story of a girl who involves her father in her day off, turning a sick day into something special after all.

I purchased this book because I remember reading the author's work when I was a child. What a delight that William Steig is still at it. Our two year old loves this story about Toby hiding from his parents. She can find him in all his hiding spots. A quick read appropriate for a toddler with soft illustrations. Like an "I Spy" with a story.

This is a fantastic book to read to your kids. It's made up of short (1-2 page) chapters on topics that kids are concerned about when facing their parent's divorce. The great thing about it is the questions it asks. It would take 10 minutes to read a chapter and then we'd spend the following hour talking about not just the topic of the chapter, but the 1000 other questions the kids had that reading the chapter helped bring out. Think of it as a discussion primer.

My MIL sent us this book when our 4-month-old continued to wake every 1.5-2 hours and wouldn't sleep in his crib. I appreciate her thoughtfulness, but we found this book completely useless. I could have achieved the same results by doing absolutely nothing.

Maybe it's just my personality type but I like my advice backed up with scientific facts and some actual research. This book was way too touchy-feely for me. After we read it, neither my husband nor I could name more than a handful of concrete things to do, and these were so minor and silly that they made no difference. When you have a child who hates to go to sleep and cries when you try to get him to sleep and then cries when he's over-tired, how exactly do you reach that "no-cry" period? We tried a lovey, like she suggests. Made no difference. We tried slowly taking away his pacifier. No difference. We tried not letting him fall asleep on the breast. Still waking up constantly, if not more often. We tried sleep logs. Great, now we have a bunch of pieces of paper we can turn into paper airplanes to throw at each other when we're up at 4am.

I liked the tone of this book - it was a little less clinical than Healthy Sleep Habits by Marc Weissbluth. I'm a bit surprised she didn't figure some of this out by her 4th child (the late bedtime problem etc!). I think a lot of parents would have figured most of this out by the time their baby is in the second half of the first year, so I wouldn't recommend it for older babies because you'll probably only get a suggestion or two out of it that you haven't heard or thought of before. The only thing I found new in her book (compared to others) was the steps to wean baby from breast/pacifier in final stage before sleep. However, it hasn't worked for us yet! There isn't as much information in this book as Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, but maybe the log will make you really concentrate on what you're doing so you'll make more effort. Hard when you're exhausted from no sleep! It is a no-cry solution though - whereas Weissbluth's book has crying it out in it - so I prefered this book to his for that reason.

FINALLY, a book that makes sense to sleep-deprived people! I always thought there were only three options when it came to sleeping with a baby in the house: 1) You just get lucky and have a natural-born sleeper; 2) You can let them cry it out; or 3) You can just deal with the constant night waking.

Thanks to Elizabeth Pantley, I realized there is a gentle, loving way to teach my daughter to sleep without a single tear! After a few nights of following our sleep plan, my daughter started sleeping through the night. This was accomplished without ONE single tear!!!!

Unlike in other books, there is no strict format to follow. You can adapt the ideas to fit your child and at your own pace. No more feeling guilty for not just letting her cry it out and being tired all the time. No more guilt about not following the very rigid programs in some other "sleep books."

Thanks for all the sweet dreams, Elizabeth!